www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy Liturgical Translations Liturgy in the Vernacular

I may have asked this before. I am an amateur linguist, who has dabbled in every Eastern European language from Finnish in the North to Greek in the South. I am unaware of the St. John Chrysostom Liturgy being translated either into Slovenian or either of the two Wendish/Serbian languages of Germany. It's quite possible that the Serbian church has done a Slovenian translation. I have yet to see it.

I think you may have Sorbian [en.wikipedia.org] in mind. No, I'm not aware of any translations.

While not Eastern European, one of my favourite translations is into Anglish: The Worshipform of Hl. Johannes Chrysostomos [anglish.wikia.com].

I DID have Sorbian in mind. However, they do call themselves Serbs in their own two literary languages. I tried to track down a Sloven translation, but invariably I get led to Slovak.

SLOVENE, rather.

Interestingly the only Wends to arrive in the US settled in the town of Serbin in Texas. However, they were Lutheran with some interesting variations in customs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wends_of_Texas

There are other Wendish settlements in Texas; though Serbin is the best known. There are some Catholic Wends here as well. In Texas, some Lutheran Wends ended up in German churches. If any Catholic Wends ended up in the Czech parishes there, I haven't heard of them.
There are also the Windish people here in PA, in Bethlehem. They are Lutherans, but from Hungary. Their language is a dialect of Slovene, which used to be written with Hungarian phonetics. I'm trying to find out more about them.

The Lutheran Wends may have ended up in the Slovak Zion Synod, which is the only non-geographic Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and one which is slowly assimilating to English.

But Texas has relatively few Slovaks, but many Czechs and Germans. The Windish people in Bethlehem, PA, on the other hand, are a totally different breed. They came from Hungary, they used to publish their own paper in Bethlehem, using their unique Slovene dialect written in the Hungarian orthography! Needless to say, almost nobody left in that group speaks Slovene or Hungarian.
Here in PA, we have the largest group of Slovaks outside of Slovakia. Yet, it is almost impossible for me to find anyone that speaks Slovak. Occasionally. I meet with a group in this area to practice my Slovak. They are mostly Czechs and mostly new arrivals.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unitawka/permalink/1043911836587513/

https://ixtheo.de/Record/1839761334

Dear Father Al,

I hope these two links may be useful for you.

Christ is in our midst!!

Father Al,

A few decades ago there was a group of priests in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese that celebrated their Slovak heritage with a bishop for Slovakia who was guest of the late Bishop Joseph Adamec. I attended a liturgy that was celebrated, mostly in Latin, according to the new rite. I don't know how many are still in service here, though.

Bob

The Byzantine Catholic Church in Slovakia uses Slovak in the liturgy, the Orthodox Church there pretty much sticks with Church Slavonic, using Slovak for scripture readings. As you know, I'm here in Western PA, which has the largest Slovak population outside of Slovakia. I rarely meet anyone who speaks Slovak.

The Catholics in Slovakia use Slovak, Slavonic and Hungarian depending on where you are in the country. The Orthodox are unfortunately switching to Slovak as well.

Fr., I have a close friend of mine from there and she is of Slovak descent, and I don't think I've ever met a Slovak speaker that wasn't from Slovakia. She said she's been to Slovakia, and a lot of people didn't speak English, but seemed to know German. She actually wasn't all that aware of Eastern Catholics in Slovakia (though, she knows about Eastern Catholicism). I think my first experience with Eastern Christianity was probably looking up Byzantine hymns and finding a Slovak Greek Catholic site. Some of them are in Church Slavonic, but most are in Slovak. Beautiful hymns, though.

Your info gives your location as Farmington Hills, MI

Was there any significant immigration from Slovakia to the US since the fall of communism?

Roman, people move. I was born in Iowa. I live in South Carolina. Sometimes, people just don't think to update their information. I fail to see how that's relevant to the discussion.